Last night several bat group members went out to survey a wood in north Bedfordshire . We put up the double height net which Bob improvised last season and it proved its worth again when into it flew not one but two barbastelles, both post lactating females.
These beautiful bats are one of our favourites. It is sometimes claimed that it gets its name (Barbastellus) after theItalian for “star beard”. This is probably not true but you can see in this picture that it has a lot of fur under its chin
Both of the bats were caught in the double height net.
We also caught some brown long eared bats who escaped being photographed and a delightful juvenile Natterer’s who was lively and curious while he was being handled.
Natterer’s are woodland bats which are realy hard to spot. They are almost impossis]ble to identify by call alone, so were were delighted to be able to confirm their presence.
We are aiming to radiotag barbs in another wood later this week. What the betting we don’t get a female?
Photos Bob Cornes